Eikaiwa: Teaching People Who Are Probably Smarter Than You Presenter: Joey Marks

Workshop Overview 1. Initial difficulties I faced teaching eikaiwa 2. Activities 3. Tips / Things I learned as I went along 4. Discussion

Quick Audience Poll  High or low level?  Student ages?  Solo, or with another teacher?

Initial Difficulties 1. No lesson plan, no set curriculum, no co-teacher 2. Students are serious, averse to games 3. Disparate skill levels / experience

Initial Difficulties 1. No lesson plan, no set curriculum, no co-teacher  A: Repeatable tasks are good 2. Students are serious, averse to games  A: Practical English 3. Disparate skill levels / experience  A: Following a textbook would probably not work well

The Goals of My Class 1. Establish an environment where students freely talk and read natural English as much as possible.  Students are (generally) all there to learn, of their own volition, and the best way to learn a language is to use it as much as possible! 2. Interact with the students as much as possible.  Speaking natural English to students  Correcting mistakes

 Newspaper articles!  BreakingNewsEnglish.com  Selectable difficulty levels!  You can abbreviate or simplify articles yourself if your students are having trouble.  They use UK English, so if you’re from the US be aware (and point out the differences!)

Passage Comprehension Activities  Allow students to read in groups for a few minutes  Way less boring than being lectured at for x-minutes  Actively uses students’ brains  Gives them the opportunity to think of questions  Jigsaw reading 1. Divide a reading in 2 parts 2. Half the class reads 1 part, the other reads the 2 nd part. Students help one another. 3. After the groups understand their own parts, they pair up with a student from the other group and describe the passage to give context to the whole reading.

Activities?

An Example of My Discussion Question Activities  Pair, group and/or class discussion questions  Can be optional HW, too

An Example of My Discussion Question Activities  “Scientists believe the spice turmeric could help the brain to heal itself. This is encouraging news for those affected by degenerative brain diseases. Researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine in Germany examined the effects of properties found in turmeric on rats. The researchers injected rats with a compound from turmeric. After scanning the rodents' brains, they found that parts of the brain known for nerve cell growth were more active. They say the spice could lead to new drugs for treating strokes, Alzheimer's and other diseases.”  A question I would not ask:  “What parts of rats’ brains were affected by turmeric?”  A question I might ask:  “Does this news make you want to eat more turmeric in the future? Or do you think it's not important?”

Other Activity Ideas  Class speeches  3-ish minutes/person  Divide the class in as many parts as necessary to fit in the allotted time, and alternate speakers/week.  Take time to clarify, correct mistakes, and take questions after each speech.

Even More Other Activity Ideas (Wow)  Synonym finding  Underline words in your reading passage, have students brainstorm synonyms.  A good teaching opportunity  My favorite “Oh no this lesson was slightly too short” panic button  If it’s planned, though, look some synonyms up beforehand so you aren’t stumped either!

Things I’ve Gone and Learned  My students are afraid of mistakes, but so am I!  ALT’s are in a weird position of pseudo-authority  My policy: Be upfront when you’re not entire sure of something  It can be tempting to act 100% assured as the native speaker, but I find this hurts their confidence in your abilities rather than helps it.  Adults tend to be fascinated with etymology. Educate yourself!  English words are not arbitrary! Helps memorization, and tells a story.  Etymonline, or even just a google search will usually suffice.

Group Discussion 1. Q&A about my presentation / Burning questions 2. Share some activities you use in your eikaiwa.  If you don’t have an eikaiwa activity to share, think of an activity you use in your other classes (JHS, ES, etc.) that could be modified for eikaiwa. 3. What is a difficulty you’re currently facing while teaching eikaiwa? How can you overcome it?  If you’re awesome and everything is good, then a) stop making me feel bad and b) talk about a past difficulty you’ve overcome, and how you did so. 4. (If time:) Let’s be positive! What is the best part of teaching eikaiwa for you?

Conclusion   Thanks for coming!